Roland McCormick; was Re: [NatureNS] re Red Herring & Forestry

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Crossland" <dcrossland@eastlink.ca>
To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2016 10:43 PM
Subject: RE: [NatureNS] re Red Herring & Forestry


<snip>
  I would hazard a guess that the forests I've
> read that are dying all at once are white spruce (hit hard by spruce bark
> beetle).  That situation does not speak for the rest.
<snip>

Dear All,                                    Jan 12, 2016
    I wish to advance a few words in honor of Roland. I never had the 
pleasure of meeting him but based on his advocacy of a working "crap 
detector" I felt that he was a genuine naturalist and, if one had to get 
lost in the jungle, a desirable companion in such adversity.
    So far as I am aware he was the first person on Naturens to use that 
term and as you gain experience in the maintenance and use of a Crap 
Detector you will be astonished at the pile of 'information' from 
authoritative sources that is selected for rejection.
    The gospel that White Spruce is "hit hard by spruce bark beetle" is a 
good example. It is relevant to ask why they get hit one year and not 
previous years or why these three trees are riddled and a nearby one is 
fine. If you look at the weather pattern associated with a year of 
'infestation' you will usually find an unusually dry period in the previous 
or current year and if you consider the setting of the spared tree it will 
usually have more elbow room.
    And most importantly one should recognize that a tree, whether it be a 
White Spruce, Red Spruce, Ash,... is not a constant but a variate which will 
be a function of weather, soil... conditions past and present. In general 
Foresters and Entomologists do not have a working and exercised knowledge of 
Plant Physiology.
    It likely helps to have a woodpile in the yard containing Spruce wood 
but if you cut a live healthy branch from a healthy Spruce during the 
growing season, and bring the branch home so it can be readily checked for 
activity, you will usually see Scolytid and Clerid activity within two days 
of warm weather.
    The general conclusion which I have reached is that 'infestations' of 
all insects which feed in bark or wood are triggered by water stress or 
damage which leads to water stress. The exact mechanism is not clear but in 
conifers it may be related to resin flow. It could be that no eggs are 
deposited in healthy trees or that no eggs survive in healthy trees.
    If conifer bark is cut with a sharp knife on a warm day when soil water 
is ample then there will usually be a copious and rapid flow of thin resin. 
If a similar cut is made after a long period of no rainfall then resin flow, 
if any, will be very slow and viscous.
    Similar consideration apply to Ash which of course lacks resin so in 
non-coniferous trees the mechanism may involve turgor pressure when an 
attempt is made to deposit an egg in live tissue, turgor pressure when a 
larva first enter live tissue...or something more subtle. But cut a healthy 
branch off of a healthy Ash in mid May and within a few days (sometimes 
hours) there will be incoming flights of a small weevil (Hylesinus 
aculeatus); best when warm & calm. Once again it likely helps to have aged 
Ash  firewood nearby.

In Memory of Roland and his Crap Detector,
Dave Webster, Kentville
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